Flipkart launches private label in men’s category, Metronaut

The brand will offer men’s smart casual wear and accessories such as tees, shirts, jeans, belts, wallets and sunglasses in 300 styles.

“Metronaut is a combination of metro and astronaut, with the black and white logo designed to resemble a spaceship,” explained Rishi Vasudev, Vice-President, Fashion at Flipkart.

He adds that the brand is targetted at youth migrating to metros with hopes and dreams about building a bright future for themselves.

According to Vasudev, apparel is a one-lakh-crore market and there is a strong brand play in the sub-Rs 1,000 category. The company will also launch new collection every 2-3 months and the next collection will be launched in the Autumn-Winter collection.

In Flipkart, men’s fashion is a top category contributing 60 per cent by value of all fashion sales. Women’s fashion is catching up at 40 per cent.

“While there are strong global menswear brands and home-grown brands with popular product lines, there is a huge opportunity to offer a high-quality, well-designed, affordable product line that will take on the unorganised market — that’s where Metronaut comes in,” said Vasudev.

Besides Flipkart has 35 per cent share of the overall fashion e-commerce market and along with Myntra and Jabong, the firm leads with 70 per cent share of the fashion e-commerce market in India.

The share of fashion in the company’s gross merchandise value has remained static between the first quarter of 2016 and that of 2017, said a report by RedSeer.

Experts opine that private labels are very crucial for online marketplaces to turn profitable as they offer better margin. To beef-up its private label, Amazon launched in-house home and kitchen brand Solimo followed by fashion offerings Myx and Symbol last year.

Meanwhile, Flipkart owned Myntra has come a long way in terms of revenue generation from private label. The company expects 25 per cent revenue from private labels by the end of the ongoing fiscal.